


A Moment of Weakness

by gohoubi



Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crying, Gen, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, and they all live in the house on the valley owen was building, maisie lives with owen and claire in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 17:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17832677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gohoubi/pseuds/gohoubi
Summary: Claire Dearing has a panic attack.





	A Moment of Weakness

**Author's Note:**

> In this fic, Maisie never lets the dinosaurs go at the end of Fallen Kingdom. I always thought that was a bit of a silly decision :|

Claire Dearing woke up with tears in her eyes.

Every night, the scene in the Lockwood bunker played out in her mind with frightening clarity. The bright lights on the control board like unmoored stars. The glass of the control room glinting orange and foggy from the poison gas. The flashing sirens like lighthouses on the sea. The groans and screams of the dinosaurs as they died.

After all that effort expended to get them off the island, to save them from a grisly demise…there had been no point. She had failed….and Claire was not used to failing.

Jurassic World was her crowning glory. And she’d been forced to give it up after the dinosaurs threw it to the ground. She’d had hope after some of the dinosaurs were evacuated, but now they were all gone. 

Claire rolled over to face the French doors of her bedroom. She’d moved in with Owen once he’d finished building his house. When she looked out the window and over the balcony, she could see the valley the house was built in, with a glittering blue river and hills on the other side. In spring, the foliage on the other side of the valley turned an alluring shade of water-swelled green. She tried not to think too much about how similar the scenery looked to Isla Nublar.

She wanted to bury her face in her pillow and go back to sleep, but Claire knew she had to get up. Hopefully she would feel better once she did.

Claire got up and wandered into the bathroom, wiping her eyes. The remnants of her nightmare still remained even after waking. Her leg twinged a little every time she stepped on it; a shadowy reminder of the old Indoraptor wound. It had been six months, but still it hurt. The doctors had said the pain might never go away. Claire refused to look at the scar it had left. It dredged up too many horrible memories.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts she missed the little post-it note stuck to the mirror. Claire peeled it off to read what it said, recognising Owen’s characteristic spiky writing.

_Good morning,_

_Maisie and I went down to the river to go fishing. We’ll be back around 1._

_Love, Owen xxx_

Claire dimly remembered Maisie going on about how Owen was going to teach her how to fish. At least she’d have the house to herself for a while.

She looked in the mirror properly. Claire seemed to be stuck in a permanently dishevelled state since the night at the Lockwood mansion. There were a few small scars on her face, some barely thicker than a hair, one almost as wide as her pinky finger above her left eyebrow. She could never get over how many scars there were. Claire gently traced the scar above her eyebrow. It tingled slightly as she did so. Even her green eyes looked vacant now. Just another reminder of the past few months.

Claire hated looking at herself in the mirror now. She used to take pride in her appearance, back when she was a hotshot executive helping run a multi-billion dollar company. Now all her scars were just a reminder of what she’d lost.

Claire turned away from the mirror. Maybe a shower would help.

She slid aside the screen door, wincing as it made an ungodly screech. A screech….like the Indoraptor.

Claire saw memories of the Lockwood mansion stream past her vision unbidden, each one more frightening than the last. Her pulse started racing and the room seemed devoid of air. 

_No…not another one. Not again. Not again!_

Claire hadn’t had a panic attack in three months. Back when the Lockwood mansion saga had just ended, one of her panic attacks could be triggered by anything - but they’d slowly gotten better. Just how much progress had she lost by this one event?

Claire was out on the balcony before she could remember where she was. She curled up in the corner, the only place in the house she felt safe. 

She felt a sob rip out of her, and her chest tightened painfully. Why did this have to happen? After a few months of trying to move on, something would come up and bring everything back. Claire tried to shut her eyes against the visions, but they still kept coming.

_Volcanic dust rolling down the hill like a tsunami, on the heels of the dinosaurs and Owen._

_Lying on the beach, wet to the bone, gasping for air._

_The truck flying through the air to land in the cargo ship._

_Trapped in a cell, hopeless and scared._

_The whine of the Indoraptor gun, and a roar of rage._

_A claw, digging into her thigh -_

As if in response, Claire’s leg burned with pain, enough that she had to bite her lip against a sob. There was nobody around to hear - but she still didn’t like being obvious about showing weakness. Claire hated crying - it made her feel powerless and weak. But after everything that had happened, she found herself breaking down over the most petty, silly things. Her therapist said it was normal, but she couldn’t shake the crushing feeling of inadequacy every time she woke up in tears in the middle of the night.

Claire felt cold sweat running down the small of her back, and it wasn’t getting any easier to breathe. She grabbed her phone with shaking hands and after some fumbling, managed to get to Owen’s number. She knew he probably had his phone with him. She could call him right now, and Owen would be here in ten minutes. He would gather her in his arms and tell her everything was alright, that he would never allow her to get hurt again. Make her feel safe.

His number swam on the screen in front of her. Claire so badly wanted to press the green ‘call’ button. 

But she couldn’t. She’d already done this so many times. Owen had never expressed any resentment or annoyance at having to be there for her, but Claire knew something would give sometime. Her therapist had suggested she try and deal with these on her own anyway.

Claire tried to remember what her therapist told her.

_Relax. Take some deep breaths. Remember, you’re no longer in danger. If you can think about that you’ll be able to calm down. Think about all the good things you’ve seen happen._

Claire tried to slow her raggedy breaths. Tears ran down her cheeks and plopped onto her knees.

_Deep breaths,_ she told herself. Visions were still flashing past, older ones now, of the Indominus rex and a lit flare. A bloody dinosaur foot slamming against a truck window.

_When you see your disturbing visions, try and replace them with something good._

Something good. Claire could do that.

_The brachiosaurus walking though the greenery; Zia’s look of awe._

_Saving Blue on Wheatley’s cargo ship._

_Kissing Owen in the mansion atrium._

_Driving towards the sunrise, with Owen in the driver’s seat and Maisie in the back._

Before she knew it, Claire felt a lot calmer. The pressure on her chest slowly let off. She’d stopped crying.

She could tell her therapist that, at least. She’d made it through her first panic attack on her own.


End file.
